Speaker mounting system

Abstract

A system for mounting a component in an aperture of a supporting surface has a mounting flange surrounding the component to be mounted, and at least two clamp dogs attached to the mounting flange and located adjacent a rear surface of the mounting flange. The component is inserted into a mounting hole cut in a sheet rock surface or ceiling tile, so that the flange abuts the front face of the surface. The clamping assemblies are located on the rear face of the surface. There is a pivoting system for pivoting the clamp dog around an axis. The pivoting system is operable from both the front surface and the rear surface of the mounting flange so that the clamp dogs can be actuated from either side of the sheet rock or ceiling tile.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to a speaker mounting system that eliminates the need for a tile bridge.[0003]2. The Prior Art[0004]High quality speakers designed for mounting in suspended ceilings commonly comprise a front bezel and grill and have a back-can that fully encloses all the parts of the speaker assembly. The back-can, in addition to its acoustic purpose, protects the speaker and other components from dust and damage as well as often acting as a fire block. Back-cans are typical but not always required. Mounting these types of speakers in a suspended ceiling tile usually requires an additional bracket, commonly referred to as a tile bridge, to transfer the speaker's weight onto the suspended ceiling grid structure and off of the non-load bearing ceiling tiles. A tile bridge is required to rigidly span the entire width of the ceiling tile. The typical tile bridge has two structural rails to span the tile width ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]It is therefore an object of the invention to integrate a compact tile bridge with the speaker, provide an ability to operate a clamping mechanism from the front or rear, and provide a mechanism consisting of captive parts that cannot be accidentally disassembled. The system is also designed to operate in wallboard on 16″ or wider centered framing as well as bridging across 24″ ceiling tiles.

[0011]The pivoting system preferably comprises a screw extending through the clamp dog. The screw can then be turned from either side of the mounting flange. In one embodiment, the screw has a screw head accessible from the front surface of the mounting flange, and a cap mounted on the opposite end of the screw. The screw can be turned by a screwdriver on the front surface of the flange, and can be turned via a screwdriver or manually on the rear surface via the cap. In this situation, the cap is equipped with a screw slot for the screwdriver, and wings to allow fingers to grip and turn the cap easily.

[0013]To provide for sufficient clamping in one embodiment of the invention, the screw has a lower threaded portion and an upper unthreaded portion. Turning the screw in one direction causes the clamp dog to rotate until the clamp dog contacts an edge of the slot of the dog tower, and then travels along the threaded portion of the screw until the clamp dog reaches a clamped position. Turning screw in the opposite direction causes the clamp dog to travel up the threaded portion of the screw until it reaches the unthreaded portion of the screw. Further turning of the screw in this opposite direction while the clamp dog is located on the unthreaded portion of the screw does not cause the clamp dog to move along the screw, but rather the clutch mechanism ensures that the clamp dog continues to be pressed against the round enclosure.

[0017]To keep the clamp dog from coming out of the dog tower through a wide slot in the dog tower, the cap can have a skirt extending around a lower portion of the cap. The skirt encloses a top edge of the clamp dog tower and prevents the screw and clamp dog from coming out of the dog tower.

[0019]To prevent the clamp dog from rotating during insertion or removal of the component from the sheetrock or ceiling tile, the cap can be serrated on an external surface and the clamp dog tower can have a vertical extension that interacts with the serrations on the cap to keep the clamp dog in a fixed position during movement of the system into and out of the aperture.

Problems solved by technology

However, including the tile bridge along with the speaker presents some packaging challenges due to the 24″ length of the tile bridge.

This leads to excessive unused space in the box of a speaker packaged to include the tile bridge.

This excessive space affects the cost of shipping and warehousing as well cost of the product itself.

Obviously, this is not an optimum situation, especially for speakers that may not be used in pairs.

The cost of these raw materials and the quantities in which they are used in a tile bridge significantly increases the cost of the product.

The location of the head of the screw actuator on the front of the speaker leads to some difficulties when assembling the speaker, ceiling tile and tile bridge together.

This leads to assembly difficulties since to actuate the screws, the assembly must be turned so the speaker is facing up, but then the ceiling tile and tile bridge fall away from the speaker since they slide on from the back.

A simple drum or garbage can will suffice, but the alignment of the tile bridge with the ceiling is now obscured.

It is clear that this method of assembly is inefficient and difficult.

Many ceiling speakers may be used in a single installation, which only compounds the inefficiency of this method.

This type of installation is often done blind since the actions of the clamp dogs cannot be observed.

When removing a speaker like this, it is not uncommon for the installer to overly loosen the clamp dogs, since visibility is impaired.

This can cause the clamp dog to unscrew from the screw actuator and fall off completely.

Depending on the construction of the clamp and actuator, this may permanently damage the speaker's clamping system.

At the very least, this action is annoying and can lead to losing a critical part of the speaker's clamping system.

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